May 16, 2024 Newquay to Perranporth (Day 4)
Four options depended on the tide; we took the shorter distance and taxied to Crancok, a lookout carport. From there we followed the path that was mostly on dunes. When Dennis stopped to take photos, I veered left, and he continued forward. After waiting about 15 minutes at the top of the hill, I retraced my steps. I had to decide whether to go back down the slope to see if he was injured or ascend on the path. I chose the latter, asking everyone if they had seen an old man with a backpack. After about a half hour, someone said that Dennis was looking for me–I now knew to continue forward and hoped he would stop so I could catch up. Soon, I found him at a crosspath, where he figured I would catch up. Relief!
The dunes had many paths that crossed each other, making it difficult to stay on one path. Once again, the Gaia GPS kept us from going too far astray.
We walked on the beach for about a mile. Since we did not know the tidal schedule and it looked like the tide was coming in, we climbed the sandy dunes with much effort and followed that option into town. Had we known there was a staircase up to the town from the beach, continuing on the beach would have been much easier; the loose dune sands are hard to navigate.
I found it interesting that the Patron saint of Cornwall, St Piran, is said to have arrived at Parrenporth in the 6th century floating on a millstone from Ireland. This story is similar to how Saint James arrived in Northern Spain on a stone ship at about the same time.
